By Claude Bidal

For six days, over two weekends, the capital city of Canada played host to a magic festival that took to the streets as well as the stages, featuring familiar magic names, plus some surprises.

By Marla Zarrow and David Ben

Magic and magicians lost one of their best friends earlier this year with the passing of Herb Zarrow. A new book helps preserve his memory and his methods, excerpted here with a selection of tricks and reminiscences of the man behind the magic.

By Dodd Vickers

The Southeastern Association of Magicians convened recently in Atlanta, doubling its size and proving that regional gatherings can attract big-time talent.

By Mark Nelson

Plagued by a bowling ball with an aberrant personality, “The Great Kaplan” eventually triumphs over a series of adversities, his magic, music, and juggling leaving laughing audiences in his wake.

By Alan Howard

An ambigram is a word that can be read in more than one direction. Called “the Escher of the alphabet,” Scott Kim uses his skills to create these tricky texts in which you see what isn’t quite there, and don’t really see what is.

We thought last month was the “television, television, and more television” month, but there’s even more in the October “Update.”  From Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon to ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, from Lance Burton challenging a contestant on Moment of Truth to Neil Patrick Harris being challenged with a magic intervention on How I Met Your Mother. There’s a magic episode of Pushing Daisies, a movie in the works titled The Most Powerful Magician on Earth, and Matt Marcy’s play, Disillusioned: Confessions of a Serial Magician. From the United Kingdom, the results of the Magic Circle five-year election make their way over, as well as, Irish mentalist Keith Barry, who plays Las Vegas for most of November. Finally, we bid farewell to the beloved sleight-of-hand magician Roger Klause, who passed away the end of August.  

Twenty-five products are covered this month by Gabe Fajuri, Peter Duffie, John England, Brad Henderson, Alan Howard, David Kaye, and John Lovick.

• Magic from the Overground by Paul Hallas
• 666 Mentalism by Howard Adams
• The Secrets of Dr. Tao, Volume IX, Book 6 by Docc Hilford
• Gypsy Curse
• Corner of Picadilly
• Lollipalooza by Brent Geris
• Andrus: The Man, The Mind & The Magic
• Canfuse by Eric Ross and Kevin Parker
• Party Time with Magic Dave
• Bish, Bash, Bosh with David Allen
• Cabaret Card Magic by Bill Abbott
• Duplicity by John Bannon
• The Secrets of the Gypsy Thread
• Smart-Ass by Bill Abbott
• How Gamblers Win by Geritt M. Evans
• Willard: A Life Under Canvas by David Charvet
• Flow by Dan Hauss
• Joshua Jay – Methods in Magic – Live in the UK
• Beyond Deception by Tobias Beckwith
• Dice Stacking by Dennis Schleussner
• Proximity Effects by Dee Christopher
• Spins and Needles by Allan Slaight
• Cell by David Stone
• Illusion Show by David Bamberg (classic)
• Stars of Magic (classic)

This month, “Talk About Tricks” features just one person: Steve Reynolds. Steve is a 31-year-old full-time magician working out of New Orleans. His specialty is card magic, and he is a student of the art. He attributes his growth in magic to three men, whom he refers to as the “three flashes in the darkness.” These men are Brother John Hamman, Ed Marlo, and Jon Racherbaumer. The influences of all three are evident in Steve’s approach to magic. With the three mentioned influences, one might assume that Steve’s commercial appeal would come second to fooling magicians. Not so at all. By making a living with a pack of cards, Steve has kept lay audiences in mind for all of the following routines.

TS Aces: While setting the stage for a traditional Ace assembly, the four Aces and twelve spot cards unexpectedly change places.

Technicolor Find: Two red-backed cards are placed in two widely separated positions in a blue deck. The deck is ribbon spread to show that the red-backed cards have migrated to trap a blue-backed selected card between them.

Meddler’s Assembly: A basic seven-card Assembly is performed with the four Kings and three spot cards. Then all seven cards transform into the four Aces.

Plus Twelfth Method  Matcho and Expertalk on Quick Box Load.

DEAR SHOW DOCTOR: I am considering adding a dove routine to my show. I recently read that you performed a bird act. Did you? Do you have any advice on adding birds to an act? Ronald H.